Anesthesia Coding Alert

Question: Our pain management physician performed arthroplasty of a patient’s finger joint. What is the correct code for this service?

Florida Subscriber

Answer: The correct code will depend on the answers to two questions:

• Did the provider use a prosthetic implant during the encounter?
• What is the specific anatomy of the arthroplasty?

When the provider performs arthroplasty on a patient’s metacarpophalangeal joint, you’ll report 26530 (Arthroplasty, metacarpophalangeal joint; each joint) for each joint he injects. If the shots include a prosthetic implant, then choose 26531 (… with prosthetic implant, each joint) instead.

When the provider performs arthroplasty on a patient’s interphalangeal joint, you’ll report 26535 (Arthroplasty, interphalangeal joint; each joint) for each joint he injects. If the shots include a prosthetic implant, then choose 26536 (… with prosthetic implant, each joint) instead.